Ah, Springtime. My friend Maddie got engaged this weekend. She sent a mass email stating, “I am so excited that I might go bang unless I tell everybody that I’ve ever met!”
There is excitement when people get engaged. But how many times do people discuss the flip side of planning a wedding? You know the part I’m talking about – it’s when your budget goes “bang”.
The wedding industry is gigantic. The average U.S. wedding costs close to $30,000 (according to the site CostofWedding.com). This sum seems outrageous until you start factoring in all the associated costs: location, food, drink, entertainment, flowers, music, on and on and on….
One of the best solutions I witnessed at a recent wedding that kept expenses down and spirits up was the following. Instead of spending money on table decorations and parting gifts the bride and groom made a charitable donation to a local cause. So, the table where the teachers sat had a donation to a local school project, another table was for environmental causes, another for the local food bank, etc. This cut down on the manufacture of what I term “useless wedding crap” and actually proved to be a nice gesture, too. (Word of caution: this couple smartly chose organizations that weren’t politically charged.)
So those of you out there who are married: how much did you spend, and would you spend that much again?
For those of you planning a wedding: what are you doing to rein in the costs? Or are you? Do you plan to live large and roll out the red carpet?
For those of you with no intention of marrying: what are you going to do with $15,000 (your half) instead?
Discuss these and other wedding-related topics in the Geezeo group: Saving for a Wedding.
March 10th, 2008 at 10:26 am
My fiance and I got engaged last October and have been preparing for the wedding since. We immediately added a line item to our budget to save a set amount each month towards the wedding in a joint account we opened. We saved my bonus from work and both of our tax refunds. We also saved any money recieved for Christmas from our families. Our wedding is coming up this October so we have about a year engagement where we are saving the whole time.
On the flip side, we are trying to do the wedding as low cost as possible. We picked a venue that would allow us to bring in all our own outside vendors which is really saving alot. Instead of $20 a person for food we found a caterer for $7 a person. Instead of $13 a person for drink we are bringing in our own and should be quite a bit less. Also we decided not to do party favors for our guests. I don’t think they will mind not getting some useless crap anyways to have to throw away when they get home.
We are paying for most of our wedding but we are having a little help from my fiances family. My family is paying for our honeymoon for our gift. Overall our wedding will cost around 17,000 and we’ll probably pay 12,000 of it. It is a lot of money but we have prepared and won’t have to take any debt to pay for it.
March 10th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Dreamer, wow, that is a very good plan!
We, however, got married on a whim. We had been engaged 2 months, and I was already starting to be overwhelmed from everyone trying to tell us how to do it and what we should spend. As well as trying to invite everyone in our lives but knowing that we would have to narrow it down to the more important ones. We were feeling very overwhelmed actually… And we decided to go out and buy a nice dress that I could wear again, and suit he could wear again, go ahead and get our marriage license, and have our immediate families meet us at the courthouse. And that night, we did just that. For us, that was all we needed. I think we spent about $500-$600. We had about 10 people there. And it suited us just fine.
And it was so much cheaper! 
In fact, next Monday (March 17) we will be celebrating our anniversary.. 4 whole years, Yippeee!!